Animal Protection Act at Risk of Failing After Coalition Collapse

The German Animal Welfare Federation is now addressing an appeal to Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz to bring the law to a vote.

“Only a few steps remain to the finish line of a political marathon. Should the current draft legislation fail, it would not only mean the loss of years of work. It would be the failure of the attempt to end the suffering of millions of animals and to finally give real political substance to the hard-won constitutional goal of animal protection.

We therefore urgently appeal to Federal Chancellor Scholz to ensure that the draft law is still debated and passed in its second and third readings in the Bundestag”, says Thomas Schröder, President of the German Animal Welfare Federation. With an eye on the opposition parties, Schröder warns: “The constitutional goal of animal protection, which has been enshrined in the German constitution for over 20 years, applies to all parties. Party-political interests must not now be placed above the protection of animals.”

The traffic-light government had agreed in its 2021 coalition agreement to revise the Animal Protection Act of the Federal Republic of Germany. This presented the first-ever opportunity to shape regulatory law in such a way as to meet the societal demands of the constitutional goal of animal protection and of organized animal welfare advocates in Germany — for instance through the introduction of the office of a Federal Animal Welfare Commissioner. The draft submitted in September of this year for its first reading in the Bundestag, originating from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture for the revision of the Animal Protection Act, had been intensively deliberated and nearly fully negotiated by the coalition factions’ rapporteurs in recent weeks.

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